Quantum Technology

Viscount Camrose Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right. About 11% of all companies in the world in quantum are in the UK. We are second in investment, but this is a race, others are spending huge amounts of money here and many of our companies look pretty attractive. That is why we have a series of programmes, not just funding at the front end to keep grant funding and other support but thinking about how we get pull-through into procurement. That is what will keep these companies here, allow them to grow here and allow them to have the export opportunities. I look at this on a daily basis. This is a critical technology, a big growth opportunity for the UK and one where we have years of advance progress putting us at the leading edge. Over the past 60 years or so, as a country we have not done well at making sure we scale and keep companies and new technologies. We must do everything we can to achieve this in quantum.

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

My Lords, to build on the important point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Birt, quantum technologies will at some point, probably soon, enable a huge range of new capabilities across our lives, including in defence, healthcare, commerce and scientific research. So significant, broad and complex will be the impact that I suspect we will look back with nostalgia at the relative ease and simplicity of regulating AI. Can the Minister share what plans the Government have to regulate quantum and what steps, if any, have been taken so far?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The first thing to say is that I think AI and quantum will come together, so the two technologies will be extremely powerful. We commissioned some work from the Regulatory Horizons Council, which has produced the world’s first approach to regulating quantum, very much in the line of regulating use, not the development of the technologies. That has led to a series of fora where regulators are getting together to discuss this. It is something that we are at the leading edge of, but it is very early days for knowing exactly what that regulation should look like. I am sure this House will have many views on that subject.